Cowboys aren’t ready to give up on Randy Gregory

It seems fairly obvious the Cowboys aren’t interested in extending the Greg Hardy experiment, but they do have higher hopes for last season’s other risky pass-rusher.

Via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News, owner Jerry Jones said the team was disappointed in Randy Gregory’s four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, but would stick with him.

“Anybody who has had any type of substance treatment knows that Rome was not built in a day,” Jones said. “That’s not being too tolerant. That’s being patient. He just happens to have a job that has zero tolerance at some point for any ingestion of substance.

“He has got to work with a complete understanding that at some point there are consequences. Even if you’re making improvement there can be consequences. That is what he is suffering from and consequently our team is suffering. As much as anything, he’s got to see that he hurts a lot of people when he doesn’t really adhere to the program.”

Of course, it’s also easier for the Cowboys to be more patient with Gregory than Hardy — he’s a lot cheaper.

After he fell to the second round of last year’s draft because of a failed marijuana test at the Scouting Combine, Gregory is inexpensive for the next three years. He’s only making $525,000 this year, and forfeiting 4/17ths of that, so being patient is also pragmatic, even for a guy who didn’t have a sack as a rookie.

There isn’t any reason for them not to be patient. As many people have pointed out, supporting a guy with a drug problem is worlds more socially-acceptable than supporting a guy with other criminal tendencies.

And at any rate, the fact that they are sticking by him isn’t even news to begin with, right? Is there a history of teams releasing 2nd round picks 10 months into their career over failed drug tests?

It’s time the NFL penalized the Cowboys for protecting these “team leaders” who keep running afoul of league drug and personal conduct policy. Perhaps forfeiting a draft pick upon the next incident will finally teach Jerry Jones the lesson that common sense cannot.

Draft pick penalties are in the league bylaws but have yet to be utilized. It’s time.

He’s a 2nd-round pick. You don’t just throw those away after a year unless the guy is convicted of a felony or is just flat-out not contributing with no hope of ever getting it on or off the field (see Manziel, Johnny). You know what you’re getting when you draft players with baggage like this guy and if you’re not comfortable living with that then don’t spend the pick on him in the first place.

I don’t get it. He smokes weed. Not the BS he said after the combine or during the draft about having issues. HE SMOKES WEED! If he worked on Wall Street it would totally acceptable but it’s a rule in the league that pays its players millions. If you can’t abide by the rules then don’t be surprised when you get suspended. Also, the way Jones is talking about this is a joke. He may go to meetings but it’s obvious Gregory doesn’t wanna quit smoking weed. It’s a joke.

“Anybody who has had any type of substance treatment knows that Rome was not built in a day,” Jones said.
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Jerrah should know, he’s been “building” (lol) the cowboys for 21 years now since Jimmy Johnson left. His “sooner or later there are consequences” comment sounds like the parent who counts to 500 before finally disciplining their child.

When a player is suspended for a year, they are suspended for a year. Not 16 games. They must apply for reinstatement when the year is up. Otherwise a player could theoretically join his team for the playoffs after being suspended the whole previous season.

Base salaries are divided up into 17 pay days to coincide with the 17 weeks. Since a bye week does not count toward a week served during a suspension, one would assume that the player is still paid if their bye week comes during their suspension.

I love how many people are making fun of Gregory for being “bad” ON the field last year. The guy looked terrific until he suffered a lingering ankle injury, and many is even the Pro Bowl player who had an off season due to such an injury.

It’s too bad for Gregory that nearly all his playing time came after his injury, so he never got to show his stuff.

But then again, I seem to be making the TERRIBLE assumption that the average PFT comment writer knows how to analyze football. And given that one of the above says Dallas should deal “a first and a third” for “Jimmy garapolo”, I can see how wrong I was to make that assumption.

Yet again we have morons whining about how weed should be legal. You overlook the fact that it’s in the CBA so it makes that a completely moot point or are you too stupid to realize that.

Like someone else mentioned in this thread, many of us have a ZERO tolerance policy at their place of employment. If I fail a drug test, I don’t get a second, third, fourth or fifth chance. I get fired immediately. However, I know the rules and I live by them. Apparently Gregory and a handful of other players are too stoopid to realize that.

The NFL can be the cops when it comes to players breaking drug policy rules, but each team has to police themselves, which they don’t all seem to do very well. How about forfeiting a draft pick if your player fails a substance abuse drug or steroid test? Two players, two draft picks. The team can still be patient and get the player into rehab, but once the team starts loosing picks they will think twice before taking a chance on such a player.